What Is Reiki, and How Does It Work?

Reiki is a healing practice that works with universal life force energy — the same life force that, in the Japanese and Chinese traditions, is called Ki or Qi. As I describe it in The Reiki Handbook: as universal life force energy, Reiki restores and balances the body in a way that is integral to health, well-being, and aliveness. In a Reiki session, a trained practitioner channels this energy through their hands to support the body's own ability to heal. It isn't tied to any religion or belief system — it's simply energy, the way physics is simply physics.

What "Reiki" actually means

There are really two things hiding inside the one word. There's the life force itself — the energy that already exists, to some degree, within everyone and everything. And then there's Reiki with a capital R: a specific method that gives us a context and a structure for working with that natural life force deliberately. Within the language of Reiki are specific sounds (mantras), symbols, and traditional hand positions used to enable healing on a particular frequency. The practice was developed by Dr. Mikao Usui in Japan, and every lineage today traces back through that line to him.

How Reiki works

Reiki has its own intelligence. You don't have to guide the energy with your mind. Once it's flowing, Reiki naturally flows to where it is needed most — it goes to the right place, in the right amount, drawing on the body's own innate ability to heal. The practitioner isn't forcing anything; they're opening a channel and letting the energy do what it knows how to do.

It works by restoring flow. Reiki enhances the healthy flow of energy in the body and restores balance. In the medicine I practice as an acupuncturist, we work with this same life force — Qi — and the principle is familiar: when energy moves freely, the body tends back toward health.

It's channeled, not generated. A practitioner doesn't run themselves down to give you Reiki, because the energy isn't coming from them — it's moving through them. After attunement, the practitioner becomes a conduit for the universal life force, not the source of it.

What a Reiki session is like

In a typical session you stay clothed and comfortable, usually lying down. The practitioner rests their hands lightly on or just above the body in a series of positions. People often feel warmth, gentle tingling, deep relaxation, emotion, or simply a quiet settling — and some feel something subtler. There's no single "right" experience.

Is Reiki religious?

No. Reiki is not attached to any religion or belief system — it's the universal life force energy that already exists within everyone and everything. Anyone, of any faith or none, can receive it or learn it.

Can anyone learn it?

Yes. Anyone can use their innate healing abilities and tap into universal life force energy — that capacity is already in you. A Reiki training, with its attunements, simply amplifies what's already there and teaches you the formal practice. You're not being given a power you lacked; you're being shown how to work with one you already had.

Frequently asked questions

What is Reiki in simple terms? Reiki is a healing practice that channels universal life force energy (Ki / Qi) through a trained practitioner's hands to support the body's own healing. It's both the energy itself and the specific method — mantras, symbols, hand positions — for working with it, developed by Mikao Usui in Japan.

How does Reiki work? The practitioner opens a channel and the energy flows on its own intelligence — to where it's needed most, in the right amount — using the body's innate ability to heal. It works by restoring healthy energy flow and balance, rather than by the practitioner forcing a result.

Do you have to believe in Reiki for it to work? No. Reiki is energy, not a belief system — it doesn't require faith any more than physics does.

Who created Reiki? Dr. Mikao Usui developed the Reiki method in Japan. Every authentic Reiki lineage traces back through teacher-to-student transmission to him.

Want to learn to channel Reiki yourself? Start in the online Reiki class at bronwynayla.com/reiki.

Bronwyn Ayla, L.Ac.